


Hunting

by learninghowtosmut



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: F/F, Greek and Roman Mythology - Freeform, Mythology - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-25 11:07:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17120213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/learninghowtosmut/pseuds/learninghowtosmut
Summary: For the 2018 secret santa, some good old f/f cuteness





	Hunting

Temple of Diana is lit only by the stars and what faint light the crescent moon can give off, but Estrella can navigate it easily, no matter how dark it is. This has been her home for a little over half her life, now, ever since she promised herself to the service of the goddess at eleven years old. She wouldn’t want to live anywhere else or in any other way. She loves her goddess and she loves the others who live and guide worship with her.

The soft glimmers of moonlight fall through to caress the altar and coat it in silver. Technically, Estrella shouldn’t be here, but who can blame her for wanting to take in the beauty of the temple in the hours when the world is asleep with nobody to disturb her? Especially after the dream she’d had. If only one of the statues could breathe guidance to her, if only one of them could spring to life and tell her what it had meant.

She murmurs a soft prayer on her approach and then she tries to settle and enjoy the peace. Neither a lamp nor a candle is lit to break the faint silvery light. She sinks into thought. 

What had it all meant? The figure had to have been Diana herself, but the promise of a test of worthiness? Worthiness for what? All this dream has given her are questions.

And then someone clears their throat. Estrella jumps out of her skin and whirls around. Somehow, another young woman has crept up behind her, bare feet giving her silence on the marble.

“You must be devoted to your goddess to be here this late,” she says.

“Have - have you come to make an offering?” Estrella asks, feeling on the back foot. “You should come back at dawn.”

“Not exactly.” 

It’s impossible to make her out clearly.

“Then why are you here? Who are you?”

“You can call me Aescula. You will see me again,” she promises. 

There’s a loud noise at the other end of the temple. Estrella turns away instinctively to look. When she’s turned around again, Aescula has vanished as silently as she appeared.

\------------------------------

And she does, not that she realises it at first. Estrella is understandably tired after having her sleep interrupted, first by the dream, and then by staying up so much later than she should have, but she stays as cheerful as she can. It’s not that hard; she’s a pretty cheerful person by nature, and she enjoys serving her goddess. Far more than if she’d got married and had to start on the children thing. 

By day, the temple is still peaceful, and the sunlight turns the marble all shades of golden throughout the day, so different to the secret shades of silver she had seen the night before.

There are many people milling around in the temple; Diana is a popular goddess to seek the protection and favour of, and Estrella enjoys her duties - now that she's worked her way to be ranked high enough not to be the one doing all the dirty cleaning work. Not that she regrets those earlier years, but she would definitely never return to them.

A group of young men come in with offerings from their latest hunt, allegedly seeking to praise and glorify the goddess - Estrella doesn't believe for a second that they have any true reverence for her. No, they are most likely trying to ensure that they don't become the next Actaeon. The way the young women here to worship the goddess in any of her many facets avoid them tell her all she needs to know about their 'honour'.

One young woman, her curls barely held back by a thin golden ribbon, does not act in the same way. She watches them as a hunter would watch unwitting prey, evaluating its worthiness.  _ Their  _ worthiness.

She turns and recognition flashes over her face when she sees Estrella. Her skirt is just barely long enough decent, and as she walks, Estrella can see a long slit up almost to her hip which flashes bare feet encrusted with dirt.

She walks like a man, oozing self assurance and looking like she owns the world.

Estrella darts her tongue out and licks her lips. That is  _ incredibly- _

_ No. _

She shouldn't be thinking these thoughts. Not while serving a goddess particularly well known for the aggressiveness with which she maintains her virginity.

The young woman strides up to her.

"I promised you would see me again," she says. Her voice is the same as last night's visitor.

"Aescula?" Estrella asks, just to make sure. "You are a follower of the goddess?"

"...In a way," she replies, and her lips quirk up into a little smile, bordering on a smirk, that Estrella immediately wants to taste. "I have... something I want to ask you."

Estrella is just about ready to agree to anything, but she's trying her best to rein that in. She doesn't even know what she's going to ask.

"Would you like to join me on a hunt? I saw you practising your archery yesterday afternoon. I would be honoured to have you join me."

She agrees immediately. It shouldn't be too hard to get away, and it turns out not to be. It does feel strange to be wearing a shorter tunic, one that gives her much more freedom of movement than the long things she wears as one of the priestesses. She's earnt some time to herself anyway. And if this relates in any way to the promised test, then she can’t pass any of this up.

She prays to her goddess and asks for her blessing before leaving to meet Aescula on the road to the forest. Her wild curls are tied back more firmly this time, held away from her face. Her feet are still bare, but the bow she carries is too well-made for that to be anything other than a personal choice. Her eyes are golden in the sun.

Estrella has never tracked on her own, but she finds that the signs are jumping out to her. The hoofprints of a small deer, the signs of its passing, everything aligns perfectly.

Diana must have heard her prayers and blessed this hunt. That's why a skill that she has not used since before she came to the temple has carried her so far. She is doing the right thing.

When she finally sees it, her breath stops - a young-looking doe, standing so close to her she can barely believe it. Its coat is gold - not a light brown, but real  _ gold _ . She can see the lustre of the hairs in the sunlight filtering through the trees. The breeze is blowing into her face, and she's frozen still; there's no way she can alert this creature to their being there. Silently, she reaches to her hip for her quiver and nocks an arrow to her bow. Only after that does she look around to try to find Aescula, only to see that she's missing.

Unease twists in her stomach, but she ignores it.

She's an experienced hunter and well-armed, Estrella knows. She's not going to get into any danger that she can't get herself out of. And if she gets ost, it shouldn’t be too hard to find her way either back to Estrella or to the edge of the forest itself.

So, shifting her weight ever so carefully so as not to make even the tiniest noise that could alert this deer, Estrella brings her bow up to full draw. The weight of the string is heavy on her fingers and she can feel the strain all along her back, even though hers is only a short bare bow. She closes one eye and sights along the arrow while the sun pushes apart the clouds and new golden dapples play over her hide.

_ Its  _ hide.

She breathes in and adjusts her aim.

It turns its head, ears flicking. Those eyes, so soft, a beautiful shade of brown that - no, like the coat, her eyes are pure gold - turn in her direction. But she - it - doesn't move.

It doesn't know she's there. It wouldn't know anything until she released her arrow...

But she doesn’t.

Estrella slowly releases the tension on her bow and, once it's back to resting, she deliberately steps on a branch and a loud snap echoes through. But the doe still doesn't run away, not even when there’s the sound of a larger group coming up - male voices are raised and jeering, making jokes together. If she cared enough to listen to the words themselves, she’d hear a lot of typical male bragging. Luckily, it sounds like they’re going off in a different direction.

Luck, however, isn’t wholly on her side. One of them has peeled off from the group, yelling about needing a piss. And he’s coming up in her direction.

Well shit.

She could leave, she knows. But does she have to go anywhere? The forest doesn’t  _ belong  _ to them, after all. Nah, she’ll stubbornly keep her feet right where they are. Still, she grips her bow with both hands and squares her shoulders, the golden doe mostly forgotten.

“Well, looks like I don’t need to hunt for anything else today. Got myself a pretty little bag right here.”

Ahh, if only smacking him over the head wouldn’t damage her bow… All she can do is narrow her eyes. “As if you’d catch anything anyway. Your aim is as bad as your manners.”

If he just stays over there, he’ll be just about tolerable. But none of these kinds of men has, in her experience, ever shown any kind of sense for other people’s discomfort or rapidly waning patience.

“Oooh,” he smirks, and carries on by saying something which does not diminish Estrella’s desire to hit him one bit. 

She shifts to hold her bow in one hand, the other slipping down to finger her arrows longingly. But no, that would be Bad.

“What brings a pretty little thing like you all the way out here? No chaperone or guards? A young woman like you might get into all kinds of danger out here on her own.”

_ Come closer to me, I dare you _ , Estrella thinks to herself. “I can take care of myself, thanks,” she replies coldly.

“I’ve seen you before, haven’t I? Somewhere?” He frowns as he thinks. It looks like it hurts. “Wait - you’re from the temple!  _ Virgin _ priestesses.”

Her fingers twitch longingly to the arrows again.

“That why you’re out here? Getting closer to your goddess?” He steps towards her with a laugh. “Do you even know how to use that? That deer doesn’t think you’re a threat!” He waves at the doe which is still watching them. “Is it a pet or something? Is that one of the things you do in that temple? Tell you what, give me a kiss and I’ll go leave you alone.”

He moves closer again, pursing his lips and making obnoxious kissing noises at her.

Estrella, well.

She’s just about had enough. Something in her snaps.

She grabs an arrow, nocks it, draws, aims and looses. All without thinking. She feels like a woman possessed by some greater force than herself. 

He yells, the feathered shaft sticking out from the meat of his calf.

She stares for a second before turning to run away from the voices of his hunting party coming to investigate, a laugh bubbling up inside her as she does. She can’t quite believe what it is she just did. But does she regret it at all?

_ Nah _ . 

When she stopped, breathless from both running and the laughing she was trying to keep quiet, she took stock of everything. Bow, check, quiver, check. Angry guys? Not anywhere she could hear. 

She leaned back against a handy tree to catch her breath and felt a belly laugh coming up. 

Something near her rustles, and she looks up, still grinning. Then she freezes still.

The doe had followed her.

She stares at it.

It comes up to her, shining in the sunlight. 

All of a sudden, it’s too bright for her to keep looking at it; the glow shines even through her closed lids. She flinches away, brings a hand up to her face - and then, just as quickly as that light started, it fades away. She blinks her eyes open and stares.

“ _ Aescula?” _ she murmurs. “What - where did you come-?”

But no - now that she’s looking at her properly, she’s… different. Her eyes are a brighter gold, her skin is flawless and giving off a faint glow. Her clothes - they’re all purple, with gold trim, and a golden crown rests on her wild curls. Her bow is in her hand and the arrows in her quiver are gold.

Estrella kneels.

She doesn’t even hear any of the leaves or twigs crunching under her feet; suddenly the hand is there, cupping her cheek and guiding her head up.

“Diana,” she corrects her priestess.

“ _ Diana _ ,” Estrella breathes. Her eyes are fixed reverently on her face, but internally she is… panicking. All those thoughts she’d been having - what if-?

A pair of lips press against her own.

_ Oh _ .

She fumbles a little bit, this is so unfamiliar, but it feels so  _ right _ .

“I - what did -  _ my dream _ , did you-?”

She pulls her to her feet and kisses her again. It’s as good a way as any to stop her from blurting out everything going through her head. Diana knows how she’s been portrayed and how she has been twisted - mostly by men - to be the perfect picture of femininity in everything barring her hunting. She would have t be a fool not to know this. 

“What I want to know is will you join my huntresses?” she murmurs to her priestess. “You have shown yourself to be worthy through your skill before and your mercy now. You have demonstrated your faith in me, and your ability to stand up for yourself and defend anyone who needs it.” She smirks, having very much enjoyed that little demonstration. “It would have been even more enjoyable had you moved your aim just a couple of feet higher.”

_ What Would Diana Do? _ Shoot someone in the leg, if they’re lucky.

“My dream-” Estrella says again, apparently so thoroughly kissed that that is all she can think of.

Diana closes her eyes and counts to ten.  _ Useless lesbians _ . 

_ “Yes _ , I sent it. Yes, it was talking about this. Yes, this is really happening. Yes,  _ you passed the test _ . Will you join me and become young forever as one of my huntresses?”

Well, on the one hand she did have some close friends at the temple, but on the other…

“Yes,” she replied immediately, boldly going in for another breathless kiss. “Of course I’ll join you.”

Being with Diana was heady, like she had been drinking a rich wine. She just wanted to keep going in for more. Her kisses were intoxicating, and as time passed, Estrella found out the ways to make her cheeks colour and a shy smile to come to those addictive lips. There was a tingle to the kisses they shared that was more than human. Every time she brushes her hands over her goddess’s skin, there is almost a  _ shimmer _ of feeling beneath her fingertips.

She knows the shape of her perfect lips. She brushes tender kisses and murmurs her worship down the column of her neck. And every night, her goddess answers in turn.


End file.
